The man who died shortly after being detained by Davis police last week had a criminal history dating back to the early 1980s, including at least two stints in state prison.
James Kenneth Dugger served a nearly six-year sentence from June 1990 to April 1996 for a felony child endangerment conviction out of Nevada County, according to Bill Sessa, spokesman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Dugger returned to prison for a parole violation from March 1997 to January 1999, Sessa said.
By 2009 he was in custody again, charged with criminal threats, stalking and possessing drugs in jail, according to Sessa and Nevada County court records. He received another prison term, though Sessa said it was satisfied by the more than two years he spent in jail while waiting for that case to resolve.
Online court records show that Dugger also tallied a series of misdemeanor criminal cases in Nevada County during the 1980s for offenses including brandishing a weapon, domestic violence and falsely reporting a criminal offense.
He was paroled to Woodland in December 2013 and had moved to Davis by the time he came to the attention of local police at about 5:40 a.m. Friday, when residents of the Pacifico Student Housing Cooperative on Drew Circle reported that a naked man was running around screaming in the parking lot.
Davis Police Chief Darren Pytel said officers handcuffed the man — later identified as Dugger — without a struggle or use of force, and he was seated on the ground when he suddenly slumped over and stopped breathing. Medical personnel already on scene immediately began CPR, but Dugger died a short time later at Sutter Davis Hospital.
Toxicology tests are underway to determine whether Dugger, 56, was under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of his death, according to Yolo County coroner’s officials.
The incident remains under investigation by the West Sacramento Police Department, an outside agency brought in to conduct the probe.
Despite his troubled past, Dugger had made a good impression upon his neighbors at the Pacifico apartment complex, who described him as “a really good guy” who was attending classes at Woodland Community College.
“Yes, in Nevada County he messed up a lot but he was trying to turn his life around and be a better man,” Lynda Dugger, who described James Dugger as her uncle, wrote in a comment on The Enterprise’s website.
Neighbors and police said Dugger reported being the victim of an armed robbery the week before his death, the alleged thief stealing $1,800 in cash he had been saving to buy a used car. The crime, neighbors said, left Dugger “devastated.”
Other than that report and Friday’s incident, Davis police have had no prior contact with Dugger, Deputy Police Chief Ton Phan confirmed Monday.
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8048. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene